, which can reopen the country. Reports from hospitals in both South Africa, Denmark and the UK indicate that the infection is not leading to skyrocketing numbers of patients being admitted to intensive care units.
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For now, Norwegian hospitals seem to be failing to see many patients in intensive care units due to COVID-19 infections. FHI, on the other hand, wants more data from countries that are further in the omicron wave before Norway can reopen:
- We need to know who goes to intensive care units, because the capacity of intensive care will largely determine whether the health service can handle the next big wave. The increase in hospital admissions can probably be dealt with, but this clearly poses a problem if the capacity of intensive care is compromised, says vaccination manager Geir Bukholm.
A look at South Africa, which first discovered the omicron and warned the world, will be important to get as much detail as possible when the wave hits Norway:
- Now we are starting to see the contours of what could happen in Norway. So the responses from South Africa will be very valuable. We need more details about the risk groups and what is crucial for the health service to be able to cope with the high pressure of infection.
Comparisons between Norway and South Africa
The FHI is currently mapping how the omicron variant will affect the outbreak in Norway. All indications are that in vaccinated people it causes a milder disease than the delta variant. However, the institute made it clear that a variant could still pose problems if it had a much better ability to spread to the vaccinated population than the previous variants.
When asked what is comparable between Norway and South Africa, Geir Bukholm replies:
- The composition of the population is different. There are both ethnic differences, differences in age distribution, nutritional status and the incidence of other infectious diseases. South Africa has a younger population, and part of the population is malnourished and has a high incidence of tuberculosis and HIV. Another difference is the way both populations have immune protection against SARS-Cov2. South African health authorities estimate that approximately 70/80 percent of the population has immune protection, mainly as a result of prior coronavirus infection. Few have accepted the vaccine, although it has been available there since May last year.
It is worth mentioning here that the opposite is true in Norway. The FHI estimates that around 10 percent of people had the crown, while 70 percent of the population is protected by the vaccine.
Safety measures that should not be avoided
South Africa has long been saying that omicron causes a milder disease. The Norwegian services took this into account when introducing new restrictions, yet they were still interested in following the development in South Africa. However, South African scientists and doctors warned from the outset not to draw premature conclusions from their results. This is because the South African and European populations are very different. Norwegian scientists said they needed data from our countries to see how this disease manifested in our area.
Bukholm denies that Norway could have lifted some of the harsh measures had South Africa listened to before:
- No, absolutely not. We have always been sure that even with a milder course, such as the omicron, it could pose a challenge to healthcare. The most important thing was to make sure that the health service was able to cope with the challenges posed by this variant of the virus. We're still not sure how healthcare can handle this strain.
Also read our other article: Protests in Europe against COVID-19 restrictions
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